


Fucking Nazis.

by kotabear24



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Military, F/M, Genderswap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-28
Updated: 2012-10-28
Packaged: 2017-11-17 05:03:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/547902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kotabear24/pseuds/kotabear24
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The one where Liam and Zayn go off to fight the Nazis, leaving behind Liam's girlfriend, Harry, their best friend, Louis,  and Harry's little brother, Niall.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fucking Nazis.

Harry opened the door in her pajamas with a sleepy frown before she saw the figure in the doorway. Quickly, she peeked back behind her and stepped outside, shutting the door quietly. “What are you doing here, Liam?” She asked, her voice a forced calm.

“I had to see you,” Liam answered brokenly as he brought a hand up to touch her face.

Harry closed her eyes and leaned into his wide, rough palm for a brief second before shaking her head, tears welling in her eyes. “Please don’t do this to me, Liam,” she whispered, backing up towards the door. “I can’t.”

Liam’s bottom lip wobbled just a bit before he clenched his jaw and looked away. “I’m sorry. I just had to see you. In case-in case I don’t-”

“Don’t!” Harry cried, placing both her hands over Liam’s mouth. Tears spilled over and her hands moved to his chest, shoving at him angrily. “Just go! Get out of here, Liam!” She growled, voice breaking on every word.

Liam’s arms wrapped around her and her flat palms curled into fists as she tucked her head into the crook of his neck. She sobbed and hit at his chest more with her fists as Liam pulled her impossibly close. He buried his nose in her hair and breathed deeply, knowing he’d miss her strawberry shampoo when his nose was filled with the smell of sweat and blood and desert sand.

A horn honked on the street and Harry peeked over Liam’s shoulder, noticing for the first time a few of his fellow soldiers. Liam turned and nodded, delaying them for another moment. “Harry, I…” he trailed off miserably at the look in her eyes and swallowed past the lump in his throat, working his jaw.

The door opened behind them and Harry’s little brother, Niall, poked his head out. “Liam!” he shouted excitedly, grinning. “I thought you were leaving today!”

Liam took in the missing front tooth and smiled sadly, ruffling his white-blonde hair. “I am, little man,” he confessed. Niall’s face fell, and he looked up at his big sister, who was crying quietly, both hands gripping Liam’s left one like an anchor.

“…But you can’t leave,” Niall said, almost frantically. “Because Harry doesn’t know how to tackle. Who else could practice my tackles with me?”

Liam swallowed again and Harry’s breath hitched and she sobbed more. “You’ll have to teach her. Alright?” Niall nodded, biting his lip. “And you’ll have to protect her while I’m gone. Can you do that?” Niall nodded again, lip quivering. “Gotta keep all the boys away. Louis doesn’t count,” he quickly amended when Niall’s eyes shifted next door, where Harry’s best friend lived. “Louis will help you keep her safe.”

Niall lurched forward and wrapped his arms around Liam’s waist, burying his face in Liam’s shirt. “I’ll miss you, Liam,” he said, looking up at Liam with tears running down his cheeks. “You have to come back, okay?”

Harry made a whining noise in her throat and Liam put a big hand on Niall’s hair. Keeping his left hand in between Harry’s small ones, Liam leaned down so he was face-level with Niall. “Listen, little man. I’m gonna come back, alright? And I’ll tell you awesome stories about fighting bad guys and making friends over there. But you have to swear you’re gonna keep Harry safe. She’s just a girl, see. She doesn’t know how to defend herself. Right?” Niall nodded, like that was the most obvious thing in the world, and Liam smiled tightly. “Right. And you have to make sure she remembers I’m coming back. If you see her crying or thinking I’m not coming home, give her hugs and kisses and make her believe I am. Swear?”

“I swear,” Niall whispered, letting go of Liam’s waist and stepping back, towards the door.

Liam stood and brought Harry close again, kissing her forehead. “I love you. I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you so much, Harry. I’ll come home, alright? I’ll come home and I’ll marry you and I’ll buy a house for us, just like I promised last night. Okay?” Harry just nodded, squeezing her eyes shut like she was trying to remember the way those words sounded in Liam’s voice. “I promise.” She nodded again.

The horn honked again and Liam pulled away, only to surge forward and kiss her passionately. Harry kissed back, tears falling on Liam’s own cheeks, and wrapped her arms around his neck tight and squeezed. Liam hugged her back fiercely until he had to go. He set her back down and pried her hands from around his neck.

He reached into the pocket of his uniform and pulled out a thick silver chain with a paper airplane on it. He fastened it over her neck and pulled her thick, brown curls from under it, arranging her hair over her shoulders, like he liked. It was his favorite. He saw the silver paper plane dangle next to the gold pendant and cross her father had given her before he died, and knew it would protect her.

“Never take that off, okay?” He begged. She nodded.

“I love you,” she whispered.

Liam kissed her forehead once more and leaned to ruffle Niall’s hair. He turned around and walked to the car without looking back, getting into it and letting Zayn speed off to Hangar 307. He refused to let Harry come to the hangar. Hangar 307 was the last place Harry and Niall had seen their dad alive. He’d died at war after leaving from Hangar 307, and the next time Harry’d been in his presence, he was in pieces in a sealed casket, a twenty-one gun salute funeral for the Purple Heart soldier who died in battle.

Harry stepped forward before Niall rushed to her side, slipping his tiny hand inside of hers and squeezing. “He promised to come back, Harry,” Niall said reassuringly.

Harry smiled at her baby brother through her tears. “Yeah?” She asked.

Niall nodded. “And Liam always keeps his promises. Even when they’re stupid. Remember, he let you paint his toenails ‘cause he promised to do whatever to make you smile that night?”

Harry nodded, a watery laugh escaping, and a squeak of sadness following. “I’m going to go see Louis; you go on back to bed, okay?”

Niall nodded and went inside, and Harry walked to Louis’ house, not caring she was in her pajamas and outside at five-forty in the morning.

 

\---

 

**Five months later**

“Liam Payne,” the loud speaker boomed out. Louis whipped his head around and looked for Harry in the stands as he heard the soul-ripping scream. He no longer cared about shaking the other players’ hands, no longer cared about praying with the rest of his team. He needed to find Harry.

He jumped over the fence and ran along the bleachers, cleats clacking noisily as he skidded to the fans section. He found Harry, sat in her usual seat, nails clawing at her scalp as she screamed at the sky. Niall was next to her, completely bewildered and terrified. “Louis!” he shouted when he saw his sister’s best friend.

“Hey, bud, I think it’s time to go,” he said to Niall. Niall was scared, and listened immediately, gathering up his things and starting on the way to Louis’ car in the lot.

Louis turned frantically to Harry. “Harry, Haz, come on, love, there we - alright, that’s it - come on -” He started basically just babbling nonsense in a soothing voice as Harry stopped screaming and started sobbing, wailing, really, and he picked her up. She wound her arms around Louis’ neck, tucking her face into his sweaty football jersey as her nails pressed through his shirt onto the back of his neck. Louis distinctly felt the cool band of the bottom of her engagement ring against his skin. It almost burned.

Everybody in town knew about Harry Styles and Liam Payne. They moved out of Louis’ way as he carried her, taking their hats off their heads and murmuring their condolences to Harry for her loss. Louis knew she wasn’t listening, too busy muffling her cries into his chest.

He put her down in the backseat, and Niall strapped himself in right next to her, holding her hand and letting her cry into his lap. Niall played with her hair and Louis floored it home. When they got to her house, Louis carried her into her bed without a word, and Niall went into his own room, knowing Louis would take good care of her.

But Louis didn’t know what to do.

Finally, Harry gave him an order. “Niall. He needs to know,” she whimpered. Louis’ eyes teared up, but he set his jaw, the way Liam would have done, and marched into Niall’s room and sat on his bed.

Niall sat up and crawled from his covers, moving to sit in Louis’ lap. “Lou, what’s wrong with Harry?” He asked, full of concern.

How do you tell a six-year-old his hero is dead? Louis wondered. He swallowed. “Listen, bud…I need to tell you something.” Niall nodded. “Remember how Liam had to go off?” Niall nodded again, biting his lip. Louis ran a hand through his hair like a reflex. “Well…he had to go off to fight bad guys. The bad guys were being mean bullies to other, little guys, way far away, in a whole different country. And Liam went to go and take care of those little guys, and stand up for them. So the big guys would leave them alone.” Niall nodded, breathing just a bit faster in trepidation.

“Well…there were more bad guys than Liam counted on,” Louis began, and confusion and fear took over Niall’s face. “Liam…Liam’s not coming back, bud,” he whispered.

Niall started to cry, and hugged Louis tight. “But…but he promised,” Niall protested. “And I took good care of Harry, Lou. I swear I did. Liam wasn’t impressed?”

Louis shushed him immediately. “Of course Liam was impressed, bud! That’s probably why Liam let you do it in the first place, you know! He told me before he left, he said, ‘Niall’s a little guy, but he sure takes care of his big sister! Do you reckon I could leave Harry here with him? Do you reckon she’d be alright?’ He asked me that. And before I could even answer, he says to me, ‘Who am I kidding?! Of course Nialler’d take care of her. He’s my best little man’.”

Niall bit his lip through his tears. “He said that?”

Louis nodded, petting through his hair again. “He sure did.”

Niall sniffed and rubbed at his eyes. “Liam was gonna marry her, you know,” he said solemnly. “I bet she’s real sad, now.”

“I know, bud,” Louis said, swallowing past a lump. “And yeah, I reckon she’s probably real sad right now.”

“Lou…you’re gonna have to marry her yourself, now,” Niall stated.

Louis sighed. “I dunno, bud. We’ll see.” He glanced at the clock and bent down to press a kiss to Niall’s head. “Go on to bed, alright? Your mum’ll be home when you wake up. She’ll know what to do.”

Niall crawled back under his covers and Louis tucked him in nice and tight. He stood to go and Niall cried out in alarm, so Louis turned back around. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

Niall’s lip wobbled again and he gripped Louis’ hand. “You’re - you’re not going away, are you?”

Louis breathed out, feeling his heart breaking for the little boy who’d lost every other man he’d ever loved to war already, and leaned down to hug Niall through his covers. “I’m not going away,” he vowed. “I have to practice your tackles, remember? Harry couldn’t ever get them right.”

Niall relaxed instantly, and Louis turned on his night light and his nighttime music before walking out the door, leaving it just cracked.

He walked into Harry’s room and found her sitting Indian-style on her bed, staring at the paper airplane around her neck. Louis climbed into the bed with her, molding himself to her back. She leaned against him, and he leaned against the wall, and she sighed hoarsely. “I never took it off,” she whispered.

Louis wrapped his arms around her belly, just starting to grow.

“He was going to marry me,” she whispered, to herself and to little baby Darcy, growing inside her. “We were going to be a family. You were going to have a daddy and a mummy who loved you, and you were going to be so much better than me.” Tears started slipping down her face again, and Louis hugged her tighter.

“She’ll always have a daddy,” he chided her softly. “And she’ll have a mummy who loves her, and her daddy will love her, too. And she’ll have a Louis, and an Uncle Niall to teach her tackles.” A weak chuckle left Harry’s lips. Louis pressed the side of his face to her cheek. “You’re not in this alone, Haz. I swear, alright?” Harry nodded, and Louis felt her tiny, delicate fingers slide over his.

“I loved him so much, Lou,” she said, voice breaking. A shudder rocked through her body. “So fucking much, I loved him so much.”

Louis clenched his jaw like Liam, but it didn’t work as well for him. Tears bubbled over the side for his dead mate and his girlfriend and daughter he didn’t even know about, and the injustice of all of it.

“Fucking Nazis,” Harry spat with no venom, only heartache.

“Fucking Nazis,” Louis echoed.

Silence followed until Harry couldn’t stand it anymore. “But Darcy won’t ever know war. We’re going to beat them, you know. And she’ll never know about what all this was like.”

Louis sat silently, thinking about it. Darcy, never knowing what it was like to have all her mates go off and die in wars. To never have a boyfriend killed. To watch a high school Friday night football game without a list of the local soldiers dead read out over the loud speakers. Harry and Louis could raise Darcy. Maybe Louis could adopt Darcy as his own daughter, so she could have a real daddy, even if he wasn’t her biological daddy. Harry and him both knew how horrid it was, growing up without a father around. He didn’t want that for his best friend’s daughter. He wanted Darcy to have the world. Liam deserved to have a daughter who had the world, even if he wasn’t in it any longer.

“Rest in peace, Liam Payne,” he whispered.


End file.
